it started with an ox - the Bin Ladens

saudi arabia more evil than iran?

isbn: 978041036489 is by the main author Steve Coll (many researchers too), the book’s title is The Bin Ladens with the addition of ‘oil,money, terrorism and the secret saudi world’. So it might get interesting.

The Bin Ladens are interesting and since most of us know little about them its interesting to find out about who and what they do. They are not saud ‘royalty’ and are immigrants*.

Book goes into much detail about how the construction business and its iffy start-up doings, and the later concierge service business. The book has a problem as it is a bit heavy going with background and occasionally repeats itself in places to start with

The book also notes a generational divide in Saudi idioms** and how the Laden enterprise expanded by many marriages and divorces, which is how Osama came along and caused a few problems for the bin ladens.

The book could seem to be read like a divorce between the family and osama.  It explores the subject well and like any big family there’s scandal to be written about. However well meaning Saudis might appear there is also a great deal of backwardness, quite how iran is bad compared to the actions of saudi doings (or non action) as tp whether the right intolerant state threatening ‘world peace’ will be an interesting play has been picked.

With Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab helping to ruin Nigeria’s already iffy reputation (my blog) and deflecting any blame from Saudi Arabia perhaps a future problem for the family and business lies abroad should the saudi brand of well financed wahabi loony go rogue.  After all you don’t need money,kings, or buildings in ‘paradise’ do you.

Time will tell,

* trailer trash to the saud family, ** as this book goes back  three generations some explanation of wahabi customs of death and marriage is needed.